Book Review: Delivering Happiness (the @Zappos story)

As part of my New Year’s resolutions I’ve decided to push myself to read one new book per month. I knew I’d have some free time during this trip to New Zealand so I was stoked when Tony Hsieh sent me a pre-released copy of his book ‘Delivering Happiness, A Path To Profits, Passion, and Purpose’.

If you’re an entrepreneur, thinking of becoming an entrepreneur, or just curious as to what it really takes to build a successful (billion dollar) business, this book is for you. The book takes you through the mistakes and mishaps that have happened to Tony/Zappos and how they turned these problems into opportunity — building a world class organization focused on company culture and customer service.

A few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Sometimes it may seem that new problems crop up as fast as we solve
the old ones (sometimes faster!), but that just means we’re moving —
that we’re getting better and stronger. Anyone that wants to compete
with us has to learn the same things, so problems are just mile
markers.”

“It may seem sometimes like we don’t know what we’re doing. And it’s true: we don’t. That’s a bit scary, but you can take comfort in knowing that nobody else knows how to do what we’re doing either… so there are no experts in what we’re doing. Except for us: we are becoming experts as we do this.”

“The role of a manager is to remove obstacles and enable his/her direct reports to succeed. This means the best leaders are servant-leaders. They serve those they lead.”

“The best team members have a positive influence on one another and everyone they encounter. They strive to eliminate any kind of cynicism and negative interactions. Instead, the best team members are those that strive to create harmony with each other and whoever else they interact with.”

Great job, Tony! I’ll be recommending this book to all my friends and I will use it as a working blueprint when I starting building my next company’s culture!

2 years ago  /  70 notes